'50 Shades' sexes up SA wine

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 6:29 AM

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It's long been known to wine connoisseurs as a sought-after South African wine, but now Klein Constantia's Vin de Constance is in even higher demand thanks to its mention by EL James in her blockbuster trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey.

In the book, the wine is served at a masked ball that characters Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele attend.

"Thanks to author EL James many more people are discovering one of the great wines of the world," Hans Astrom, Managing Director of Klein Constantia, told the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail reports that fans of the trilogy are flocking to the wine estate situated 20 minutes outside of Cape Town.

Made from a varietal of the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains grape, the wine was drunk in the 18th and 19th Century by Frederick the Great, Bismarck, and the English Prime Minister, while regular consignments were delivered to Buckingham Palace.

Fifty Shades of Grey is not the first time the wine has received mention in literature either. Jane Austen recommends the wine for "...its healing powers on a disappointed heart," in one of her novels, while Charles Dickens is mindful of "...the support embodied in a glass of Constantia and a homemade biscuit."

Sadly, Constantia's vineyards were ravaged by a pest known as Phylloxera at the end of the 19th century which left the farms bankrupt and the popular wine soon petered out of existence.

After going through farm restructuring in the 1980s, winemakers decided to revive the old-style wine, after careful analysis of the few original vines still alive. It is believed that these vines dated back 300 years.

Today, Vin de Constance 2007 - the most current vintage available - has been rated with 97 points by international wine critic Robert Parker. It is described by the estate as having aromas of Turkish delight, honeysuckle, citrus peel and clove, with an "unctuously sweet, deeply complex and concentrated tropical and Seville orange marmalade flavours are lifted by a fine acid thread to a satisfyingly long, delicious and lipsmackingly vibrant finish."